Which are the deepest roots of that mix of cultures that we use to call ‘Mediterranean Civilization’? Which are comminglings and exchanges which produced its most complete fruit, i.e. the city, a place for landscape-modelling communities? And which elements did contribute to build up that baulk of customs, ideas, and innovations which compelled to confrontation and hybridizations different peoples for millennia? What did it made, from pottery to metallurgy, from gastronomy to architecture, from art to religion, of a sea a cradle of civilization? Archaeology may help in disentangling such questions, seeking unexpected answers , by tinkering what ancient Mediterranean peoples left buried in the ground. A privileged point of view of our course is the ancient Phoenician city of Motya, located exactly at the centre of the “sea in the middle”. Throughout the live experience of excavation, with images taken on the field, this course will let you touch the many tesserae of the great mosaic of the Mediterranean Civilization. The field diary of the archaeologist, and the handpick will be the two tools, which will lead us across the sea to discover what such early cities actually were, and how their contribute is still a major part of our shared memory.

Taught By

Lorenzo Nigro

Transcript

[SOUND] [MUSIC] Landing on Motya, this is the very place in which the the Phoenicians landed around the beginning of the 8th Century BC. This is crucial for our Mooc because we are telling the story of the people coming from the east to the west. And we want to know who they were and what they brought with them. So we are going to sample the soil to extract the ancient DNA. And to study what they were carrying with them. Such as plants, animals, and even their own bacteria. Telling us which were their disease and so which were their society, which were they used to eat or to cultivate. So this is very important information, which is just concealed in a sample like this. And now Fabiola is going to take it directly from the soil, which was unearthed by the Sapienza University of Rome during the excavation of 2016. [MUSIC] Motya is a splendid example of the target of this Phoenicians expansion. That means an island in a lagoon in a very strategic location from the point of your sea roots, because we are here in the tip of Sicily. But also in a very favorable environmental setting that means the availability of fresh water, which was a special skill of Motya, and of salt. So we have the earth security, safety in the lagoon because the boats could be protected easily. Fresh water, salt, which was a basic resource in antiquities because you needed salts to preserve food. And fish, of course, which was largely available, and fresh waters. Recent archaeological investigation discovered in the southern side of the island the springs of fresh waters, which were connected to the phreatic aquifer. Which could feed the community, which could even use them and spread it to supply the ships during the long trip to Sardinia with fresh water. So this is the very simple setting of Motya in a very vulnerable place which could really support, as we will see, a very large human community for a long while.

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